Knocking on doors for the neighborhood survey in the area of Sumner neighborhood south of Sandy Blvd, has revealed some urban legends about neighborhood boundaries!

Urban legend #1: The Grotto is in Sumner neighborhood. Sadly, technically, it is not. Even though The Grotto looms over our neighborhood here in NE Portland, according to the official neighborhood boundary map on the city website, The Grotto is actually part of the Madison South neighborhood.

Urban legend #2: The residents between NE Sandy Blvd and the Grotto are part of Madison South neighborhood. They are not. According to the same neighborhood map, those streets are part of Sumner neighborhood.

This misconception seems to be due to a few things:

If you drive eastbound on NE Sandy Blvd between NE 82nd and NE 85th, or on NE Skidmore Street, you will see ‘Welcome to Madison South’ signs — because the south side of those streets, including The Grotto, are in Madison South.

Madison South has been mailing newsletters to this part of Sumner neighborhood.

The Sumner neighborhood newsletter has had limited distribution south of Sandy Blvd due to a lack of volunteers.

However, Maywood Park is different. A town separate from Portland that was incorporated in 1967, the bulk of Maywood Park is located east of I-205. But, probably due to its boundary before I-205 opened in 1983, they also have small area west of I-205 — the east side of NE 92nd Ave south of NE Prescott — that overlaps with Sumner neighborhood.

That’s right: We actually share part of Sumner neighborhood with another town.